July 29, 2011

Moving on...

As others have noted, living with more than one dog means more opportunities to observe dog behavior because you can watch the dogs interact. Over the past two months, it has been really interesting to watch Katie and Arlo figure out how to play and just generally be together. Arlo is gradually learning how not to send Katie away. (Jumping on the big dog's head, nipping, barking = big dog leaves.) In calmer moments, he's content to lay near her (notice how in the above photo, his paw is just touching hers?) and if he's not too much of a pest (read puppy), Kate will let him. Hard to say for sure what Kate's body language above indicates. Her head turn might be because I'm standing there with the camera (her usual response to being photographed unless I've got food), or it might be because Arlo has gotten a bit too close.

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It's probably not obvious from the above photo, but Arlo has gained about 6 pounds since he came to live with us. He still looks like a puppy, with his parts not quite in proportion--he just looks like a really big puppy. We've been taking some training classes, and I think he's doing great with basic behaviors, and even a couple tricks (I'll post videos soon). Interestingly, the more he learns, the more he learns about learning. In just a short time, he's gone from a dog not too excited about training, to a dog who regularly offers behaviors. Like Katie, he dances around now when I pull out the clicker.

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I've been trying to think of a graceful transition to my next topic, but I'm not coming up with anything. So let me just close by saying that this is the final Paws for Thought post. I've started a new blog here, mainly so that I could change the title. I'll still be writing about the same things. Thanks to my friends for reading PFT, especially early on when I was new to blogging. Hope to see you at the new place. :)